


You Can Breathe Now

by Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Arrow - Freeform, Arsenal - Freeform, Could have happened, Overwatch - Freeform, realistic setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-04-14 01:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4545306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer/pseuds/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Arrow finds themselves in a tricky situation when trying to rescue Diggle from his kidnappers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Breathe Now

The small drops of rain fell swiftly and almost quiet. The slight  _thud_ s when they hit the concrete or the window inches away from her were such calming, rhythmic noises. Behind closed eyelids, all she wished for was to lie in her bed right now, blankets surrounding and giving a certain sense of protection, warmth, and a lingering scent of soap and perhaps that ever so light tinge of sweat that makes you so distinctive to others. If she concentrated hard enough, she could imagine herself in that safe place only she knew. Or rather had been for a couple of years, it had actually been a while since –

“Felicity, did you get anything yet?” A tall figure in emerald leather walked around the corner of a car and crouched down next to the blonde with tightly shut eyes.

She jumped ever so slightly from hearing the voice and the electronic tablet almost fell off her lap. Resisting the urge to actually make a sound, because she knew it would betray her already telling composure and show that she was even more afraid of this than she already displayed, Felicity simply shook her head no and went back to tightly shutting her eyes. The emerald archer cocked his head to the side and hesitated.

“Let me know over the coms when you get a ping off his cell phone” he then simply said, gently placing his free hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. This time the woman nodded yes and clasped her hands around her ankles, hugging herself a little more. For a minute that felt like forever, nothing happened.

“Oliver, go” Felicity finally heard herself say, a bit coarse but stronger than she had expected of herself. There were more important things he had to check on right now than her. There were people he had to protect. A dangerous criminal he had to catch. There were alleys he had to check for any sign of said evil lunatic. There was a partner he had to get back. There was a friend they both needed to return, and he was their best chance of that happening. Everything right now was more important than her crouching in an alleyway, slightly nauseated and desperately waiting for a vibration from her modified tablet that would alert her, and him, that their friend’s cell phone was within reach again.

Which meant that wherever the lead-lined cell was that he was being kept in, he was finally being transferred from it. He would come out of this labyrinth of rooms and hallways and containers and man-made alleys with them, free for them to rescue him. A deep inhale and a stocky exhale through her chapped lips caught someone’s attention over the communication device plugged in her ear. “Are you sure he’ll be moved today? We’ve been waiting for over an hour now.”

_Beep-beep_

“Lyla got the information from someone in ARGUS. And regarding her personal interest in this, I very much doubt she’d waste her time on something she didn’t think was worth the effort.” Another twinge to the heart for Felicity.

This cannot be a trap, it just couldn’t be. She checked her tablet again, making sure she was piggybacking off a WIFI the dock keepers used and still able to locate his cell as soon as it could send a single byte of information to one of those satellites orbiting the earth. She would catch it. She would lead them to him. There would be a struggle and a bit of fighting and after ten minutes, everyone would be free and Diggle would be calling Lyla to put a sigh of relieve in her chest and a smile on her lips. Just please,  _please vibrate already_ , Felicity was pleading with her tablet. “Felicity how strong is your-“ “Ahh!”

_Brrt_

_Brrt, brrt_

She jumped up and the blood rushed through her thighs to her half-asleep calves and feet. “I-I-I-I’ve got something”, she shouted onto the airwaves and everything around her disappeared. She couldn’t see the parked car anymore, she couldn’t hear the rain nor feel the drops hitting her harder and harder on top of her head. She tapped the screen of her illuminating tablet a couple of times and after two horrifically long blinks of her eyelids, she heard them again through the wireless in her ear.

“Did you get a signal off his phone?” “Where is he now?” “Can you tell where they’re taking him?” “Give me directions!” they were hissing, questioning and demanding. The map on her screen took another second to load and Felicity’s hands started shaking. This didn’t make it any easier to see through the water that accumulated in her eyes.

“Oliver, you need to get to a warehouse about ten containers to your left. And hurry, they should come out of there within the minute. Roy,” her head whipped around as she was trying to orient herself and find the best way for herself to get to the warehouse. The sound of a motorcycle being kicked to life roared over the coms as she went past the first container, thanking her lucky stars that she switched to sneakers before they left the foundry that evening.

“I just sent you the coordinates, you should be there just slightly after Oliver, you picked the right spot to wait for instructions. Guys, be prepared, they will most likely have guns and who knows what state they have Digg in.” Everything was silent again but for the ever growing beat of her heart and shortness of her breath.

_I should do more cardio, this is not okay._

Pins and needles in her legs were for once not a hindrance, the adrenaline pushed them away. “I see movement inside,” Oliver’s whisper informed her and Roy. “Ten seconds out”, the scarlet archer almost shouted in comparison. The bike sounds died abruptly and were replaced by swift sounds of wind flying by the microphone of the coms. “I’m going left,” he added, this time also whispering. “Felicity, we’re in position. Stay back.”

_Like hell I will_

She rounded a corner, appearing at the right side of the warehouse they were now all watching intently. There was definitely movement, the door flew open and a closet-shaped man walked out, a gun in his hand and looking around carefully. Good thing the leather suits are mostly black or dark green. Oliver was wise to put more black on Roy’s suit. After the closet-case, two other men stepped out of the door frame, one of them pulling someone else behind them, hooded, cuffed and bleeding from his lip. It was Diggle. Felicity heard herself take a sharp breath and by the time the last man slumped out the warehouse, closing the door behind him like he had all the time in the world, she was asking herself why Oliver hadn’t open fire yet.

She could see it in her mind’s eye – an arrow to the closet holding the gun, knocking it out of his hand. Roy jumping on the guy at the door quickly, throwing him backwards onto the floor and hitting his kneecaps so he wasn’t able to move for at least a minute. The next arrow would be an explosive one, landing right in between closet case and the man behind him. While they were still blinded by the noise and smoke, Oliver would come up and fight them both. A hand to the jugular, a swift kick to sweep the smaller guy off his feet and a restraining arrow to keep him on the floor. Roy would work on the guy retaining Diggle, knocking the gun out of his hand and showing off what Oliver had taught him. All guys would be on the floor within two minutes and Diggle would be free and everything would be fine again. When Oliver pulled back the string on his bow, waiting for the perfect moment to shoot, nothing was keeping the situation from playing out like that. Unless….was that the sound of a car coming up the far driveway to the warehouse?

“Oliver, now,  _shoot now_!” 

Though all three of them were startled, an arrow hit the floorboards next to the closet guy. The explosive went off, Roy tackled the guy by the door with more force than necessary, knocking the his head against the floor in a shutter-inducing noise. Oliver couldn’t shoot another arrow because of the smoke, so careful not to run right into the closet guy’s line of shooting, he tried to level him from underneath it. For a second, Felicity heard a shout that sounded a frightening lot like Diggle being hurt and her heart sped up. She ran behind the container a little closer to the warehouse and tried to identify the moving figures through the smoke that wouldn’t clear. Grunting, thudding and general whimpers of pain rang through the communications system and the blood started to freeze in Felicity’s veins.

_Don’t do this to me, guys,_

she kept saying to herself in her mind,

 _come out_ now.

There  _was_ a car slowly coming up to the house, and the lights shot through the smoke just enough for the blonde to make out some figures. Diggle was trying to hit the guy who was holding onto him earlier, but his hands were still cuffed and Felicity could see that he was simply keeping the bad guy interested in him and disinterested in Oliver and Roy as best as he could. Oliver was still fighting with the closet guy and Roy was having a hard time getting a hit on the small guy. Seems he had been trained tremendously in some kind of martial art, and Roy was busy enough simply ducking his attacks. The car drew nearer and nearer as well. This wasn’t going to go well, was it?

Oliver found an in, pushed his hand hard into the closet’s throat and kicked him unmanly in the manly parts. Well, you have to get him down somehow, the guy  _is_  a closet. He sank to the floor, unable to move for a little bit, and Oliver turned around to help Roy. Just as the red archer was about to get a hit in the stomach that would have definitely led to an emptying of its contents, the martial artist got a hit over the head and stopped dead in his movements. He got another blow over his ear which confused his equilibrium and he sank to the floor knees first, then his hips, and lastly his shoulders and head. Oliver looked up with a kinked eyebrow and Roy bent over to catch his breath.

“You guys owe me a new tablet” Felicity said, the now cracked tablet still behind her head as her arms had swung out, a bit of shock still written over her face. Diggle copied her move with his cuffed hands and Oliver grabbed an arrow out of his quiver to shoot it at Diggle’s captor. A net released itself from the back and tied the man to the wall. After several long, deep breaths from everyone in the team, Diggle was the first to straighten himself up again.

“Think you guys can get me out of these cuffs and on our way home?” Felicity’s head snapped around, making her ponytail jump from side to side.

“Right, what happened to that car that was driving up?” A black Mercedes did halt in front of them at that moment, and a familiar person, dressed in smart, dark attire and with a grin on their lips, rose from the driver’s seat.

“You need a ride?”

_Maniac._

That was the one word on the tip of all four of their tongues right now.

“I’m not riding with him, I’m taking the bike back to the foundry,” Roy said with a head shake that showed pure resignation. Oliver went to Diggle to unlock his cuffs and then patted him on the shoulder, accompanying him to the car. When he passed Felicity, he put a hand on the small of her back and led her along with them.

“Isn’t there another way out of here?” She sighed. “Not one as fast as this one” he responded, pressing his lips together.

“Nice swing, Miss Smoak. I was very impressed. If Oliver doesn’t buy you a new tablet, I’d be happy to.” As she put a foot into the car next to the man, Oliver returning to step in behind her after making sure Diggle got in alright on the other side, she gave the man a special kind of look.

“Thank you, but I think I’d better ask Thea for that seeing as she’s in charge of all your finances now. Isn’t she, Mr Merlyn?” Malcolm just smiled, amused, and Oliver slid into the car after Felicity without a further word or look.

“So this is the team in action,” Merlyn smiled to himself. “This is going to be a fun ride.” He finished as he shut the door, got into the car himself and drove after the motorcycle that sped away ahead of them.

**Author's Note:**

> come cry with me on tumblr (an-effed-up-mess.tumblr.com). My # of Arrow fanfics are finite btw. I've stopped watching the show shortly after I started writing fan fic about it tbh. (Realized my stories were more compelling than their episodes, hahahahahaha)


End file.
